Women, gays give McCormick funding edge

WASHINGTON - State Sen. Dale McCormick of Hallowell has emerged as one of the
best-funded candidates for Congress in the
country, thanks to the national support she has received from women and
gay-rights activists.

According to records released last week by the Federal Election Commission,
McCormick has raised more money than most of the 250
other candidates who are running for the House this year.

McCormick is challenging Tom Allen, a former Portland city councilor, in the
Democratic primary in June. The winner will take on Rep.
James Longley Jr. in November.

As of Jan. 1, McCormick had raised more than $246,000, making her the 10th
best-funded House challenger in the country. Allen had
raised one-fourth that amount, about $63,000.

McCormick's successful fund-raising efforts could pose a serious threat to
Allen, who had been viewed as the early front-runner to
challenge Longley.

McCormick said she will spend about half of her money on television
advertising.

McCormick's success in fund-raising is unusual, because most first-time
candidates for Congress struggle to raise money. And first-time candidates
usually
raise most of their money in-state from friends, neighbors and party
regulars.

But McCormick has raised most of her money from hundreds of people in 48
states, plus the District of Columbia and the United Arab
Emirates.

An examination of a 300-page list of donors filed by McCormick shows that:

Nearly 80 percent of the money raised by McCormick came from
outside Maine. She received significant amounts of money from
California, New York and the Washington, D.C., area.

More than half of her donations were funneled through a
Washington-based group called EMILY's List, which seeks to elect
Democratic women with pro-choice views on abortion. In all, McCormick received
$130,000 from EMILY's List.

McCormick, who is openly gay, has also tapped into a vast network
of gay and lesbian activists from around the country. To date, she has received
at least
$20,000 from the gay and lesbian community.

As of Friday, McCormick maintained a formidable financial edge over Allen.
According to officials from the two campaigns, McCormick has $180,000 in cash on hand; Allen has $30,000.

Allen says he is confident that his fund raising will pick up over the next
month. McCormick said her financial strength shows that her
campaign is on the move.

"We've gotten a lot of momentum from our good fund raising," McCormick
said.

However, McCormick could face a backlash from voters concerned with the amount
of money she has raised and her dependence on out-of-state
donations.

McCormick received nearly $200,000 in out-of-state donations, including
$40,000 from the Washington region, $38,000 from the New
York area and $24,000 from California.

In fact, Allen raised more money in Maine than McCormick.

Not aggressive in Maine

McCormick said she did not aggressively raise money in Maine last year because
she did not want to compete against the people who
were raising money to defeat Question 1, the anti-gay rights initiative that
voters rejected in November.

She also notes that, even though a vast amount of her money comes from out of
state, she had more individual contributors from Maine
than Allen.

McCormick has encouraged some Maine Democrats to give a few dollars to her
campaign so she can say that she has more financial
supporters in Maine than Allen. It's an old tactic that several Maine
politicians have used in recent years, including Sen. William Cohen
and former Sen. George Mitchell.

Allen, who has been struggling to raise cash, has been talking more and more
about the need to reform the way political campaigns are
financed. Even though he doesn't attack McCormick directly, the implication is
clear.

Allen argues that it's wrong for politicians to rely too heavily on
out-of-state donations. He supports legislation that would require candi-
dates to raise 60 percent of their money in-state.

"The potential problem is that a candidate would pay more attention to their
out-of-state financial contributors than their in-state constituents," said Allen.

Jacqueline Potter, Allen's campaign manager, said she was "really struck"
when she examined McCormick's report and "saw page after
page of names from people from Idaho, Florida and California."

"They have no connection to Maine," said Potter. "I have a feeling that if
these people drove into the state and stopped to get a burger on
the turnpike and they were sitting in a booth next to Dale McCormick, they
wouldn't know who she was."

Trying to elect women

That would be true of Billie Bobbitt, a 72-year-old retired Air Force colonel
who lives in Ohio.

Bobbitt has never met McCormick, and doesn't know much about her. But last
fall, Bobbitt sent a $500 check to McCormick's campaign for
one reason: She wants to elect more women to Congress.

"It's about time that more women get involved in the United States
Congress," said Bobbitt. "(Women) look at issues differently. They're a
lot more concerned with the environment, education. It's important to focus on
those gut-type issues."

Bobbitt is part of huge network of women that McCormick has tapped into thanks
to a group called EMILY's List. The name is an
acronym that stands for Early Money Is Like Yeast.

Founded in 1985, the group is designed to provide early money to campaigns of
pro-choice Democratic women candidates. The group
works like this:

EMILY's List has about 34,000 members around the country, who pledge to
contribute $100 or more to at least two women candidates during each election cycle. The members are sent profiles of the candidates who
have been endorsed by the leaders of EMILY's List. The
members write checks directly to the candidates they choose, but send the
checks back to EMILY's List headquarters in Washington.
The checks are "bundled" and sent along to the candidates.

Group raised $8.2 million

EMILY's List claims to have helped elect 38 women to Congress since 1985.
During the 1994 elections alone, the group raised $8.2 million.

More than half the money McCormick has raised was funneled through EMILY's
List. It came from women like Stephanie Thomas of
New Hampshire, a retired registrar at the University of New Hampshire.

Thomas wants to elect more women to Congress because she thinks women are more
independent than men, "less apt to be
influenced and more likely to be compassionate." Last September, Thomas sent
McCormick a $100 check.

EMILY's List has also provided McCormick and her campaign manager with
campaign training seminars.

In November, McCormick traveled to Florida to raise money for her campaign
from female activists. She was the keynote speaker at the
convention held by the National Organization for Women and attended a
fund-raising reception held in her honor in Boca Raton.
She received $1,600 in donations from the event.

In addition, McCormick received $5,500 from political action committees that
represent women.

Gay activists help out

As one of the few openly gay candidates for Congress, McCormick has also
received a significant amount of money from gay and
lesbian activists.

Members of a Washington-based group called the Gay & Lesbian Victory
Fund donated $3,300 to the McCormick campaign.

McCormick also received a $5,000 check from the Human Rights Campaign Fund,
the nation's largest group that promotes the rights of
lesbians and gay men.

In December, McCormick was the guest of honor at a party in Washington at the
home of Elizabeth Birch and Hilary Rosen, who
are partners. Rosen is president of the Recording Industry Association of
America and Birch is the executive director of the Human
Rights Campaign Fund.

"The place was packed. It was a mob scene," said Michael Bento of
Washington, who contributed $100 to McCormick at the fund raiser.

McCormick received nearly $7,300 in contributions from the Washington region
during the week of the party.

And she has received a lot of individual support from homosexual
activists.

Timothy McFeeley, the former executive director of the Human Rights Campaign
Fund, sent her $150.

Candace Gingrich, the openly gay sister of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, gave
her $100.

Herbert King, an openly gay man who lives in California, also sent McCormick a
$100 check. King met McCormick 10 years ago at a Democratic National Convention.

"I support her because she would become the first openly gay or lesbian
person ever elected," said King. "I think it's important that a
person achieve such an office because the public has the wrong impression of
gays."

Family, friends contribute

McCormick has also boosted her fund-raising efforts with the help of her
family, friends and political supporters.

Friends of her father, a retired book publisher in New York, hosted one
fund-raising event in late November at an apartment at Central Park West. The event attracted the editors of Glamour and Cosmopolitan
magazines, and several other editors, writers and literary
agents. She netted more than $4,000.

"Dale spoke, and she was very good," said Mary Yost Crowley, a New York
literary agent. "She seemed to stand for all of the things
I stand for - women's rights, the environment."

Though McCormick says her successful fund-raising efforts have given her
campaign credibility and momentum, she seems uneasy at
times talking about the money she has raised.

When asked if her father helped her raise money in the New York area, she said
"ask Ethan," referring to her campaign manager, Ethan
Strimling. When asked whether her father held a fund raiser for her, she again
referred the question to Strimling.

She also didn't want to talk about how much money she planned to raise in the
primary. "Talk to Ethan about that," she said. (He later said
the goal is $500,000.)

McCormick may recognize that money, while an important ingredient in a
campaign, can also have negative effects. Some voters are
skeptical about the way political campaigns are financed, including the
influence of out-of-state money and groups that bundle money such
as EMILY's List.

It's an issue that Allen will emphasize.

Allen has outlined a plan to reform the way political campaigns are financed.
It would ban political action committee contributions,
place limits on out-of-state funds, and impose voluntary spending limits in
exchange for subsidized postage and radio and television
time for candidates.